You Gotta Have Faith

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You gotta have faith to drive in Costa Rica. I drove the hour drive home to San Ramon from Pavas last night. Trust me, it wasn’t my choice. I don’t drive much here. Driving when I slept for three hours the previous night was not something I looked forward to.

We drove into Pavas for Bill to watch college football with friends, the Gators vs Georgia. Go Gators! While Bill sported his ASU shirt he doesn’t have much hope for them this year. He misses college football terribly and surprisingly the commercials that go with it. Who knew? I think we’ll be changing our satellite provider first thing Monday morning. Bye-bye Direct TV, hello Amnet, if we can get it in San Pedro de San Ramon. You never know.

As most people know, beer goes with college football. Like peanuts, you never can have just one. Bill told me on the way to Pavas I was driving home. It wasn’t a question, it was a fact. When we arrived he handed over his keys. That was all there was to it! It was one of those times where I’d just have to suck it up and do it. That's love! I took a nap during the fourth quarter and our hosts made coffee for me before we left. I was ready, or was I.

The drive itself is a straight shot once you get out of Pavas, a left onto the autopista then a right on the second clover leaf and voila’ you’re on your way. I’ve done the drive as a passenger a million times, at least. Piece of cake, or so I thought. We passed the peaje, toll booth between San Jose and Heredia without incident, moderate traffic and a few sprinkles. No problems. The next obstacle was being in the correct lane for San Ramon when passing the airport as there are no lights on the sign. If you’re in the wrong lane you either end up in the airport or take a detour into Alajuela. I positioned my self correctly and didn’t have a problem. From the airport to home is only 45 minutes, I was going to do just fine.

Night driving in Costa Rica is an experience similar to haunted houses. Once you leave Alajuela there are NO lights on the highway. The roads are black, the sky is black, and the lush landscape is black. The only thing you see is stars and headlights coming at you. Picture the star gazer screen saver or the old arcade game asteroids. That’s when the heavy praying started. It wasn’t just my life at stake; both Callista and Bill were in the car. Picture yourself driving in a black tunnel when suddenly you’re blinded by semi-truck headlights coming strait towards you, in your lane. If your number is up, it’s up. There’s nothing you can do about it. That thought helped to calm me. Funny isn’t it?

I prayed for rabbits as I call them, other cars for me to follow. As I was only doing about 40mph most of the rabbits I wanted to follow sped past me and raced off into the darkness. It helps having rabbits so you can see where the curves are up ahead. There are no straight roads in our part of Costa Rica. Since the rabbits failed me all I had to go on was faith. Blind faith!

For most of the drive from Alajuela to San Ramon I couldn’t see the road at all, it blended into the night. The headlights on our car are adjusted weird and point higher than they should. This causes on coming traffic to often flash their bright lights causing momentary blindness. It rained on and off, with light clouds on the roads in different areas. When there were white lines on the road I straddled them. If there were no white lines I straddled the yellow dividers. When I couldn’t see any lines I prayed harder. I had to keep stretching my fingers as they were falling asleep. I guess my grip on the steering wheel was a little too tight.

We made it home in a little over an hour and a half. It was a strange experience driving a killing machine with my family in it without being able to see where the hell I was going. I believe having faith helped us to arrive home safely. I don’t care what people have faith in, God, Buddha, Allah, peanut butter or frogs. You’ve got to have faith in something to drive and arrive safely in Costa Rica.


Pura Vida!
Jen, Bill, Callista and Bear

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